Lawmakers seek to save Urban Indian Health Care Ce

[Okwes]

Lawmakers seek to save Urban Indian Health Care Centers


Lawmakers seek to save Urban Indian Health Care Centers
Join fight against proposal that would impact children, elders


Sam Lewin 3/20/2006

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Several Senators are battling attempts to eliminate funding for 34 Urban
Indian Health Care Centers. The move comes after weeks of warnings from
Indian health care advocates that the proposed cut would seriously
impact treatment options for thousands of Native Americans.

"Eliminating an already under- funded program that hundreds of
thousands of Americans depend on is not a choice we can support. Without
access to affordable and accountable health care centers, we fear that
many Urban Indian families will go without the services the federal
government has been tasked with providing them. It is irresponsible to
deny health care access to such a large and underserved population,"
the letter, written by a bi-partisan collection of Senators, states.

The clinics are funded by the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a
piece of legislation passed several decades ago to improve upon the
dearth of health care options in Indian Country.

"[The act] was enacted into law in 1976 based upon findings that the
health status of American Indians and Alaska Natives continued to rank
far below that of the general population," according to the
Legislative History of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a
document available online, which adds the law was passed after
"testimony from Indian tribes, urban Indian health care programs,
tribal organizations, physicians and other health care professional
employees of the Indian Health Service, representatives of the
Department of Health and Human Services, as well as physicians and
health care professionals from the private sector."

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico is one of the Senators that signed
the letter requesting that the urban health centers not face any further
cuts.

"Our health safety net is already at capacity and these cuts would
be harmful to Urban Indians. It would will add more stress to our
already overburden health care system," he said.

Rank-and-file health care administrators agree.

"We are a social and economic center for Native Americans here," Crystal
Tetrick, executive director of the San Diego American Indian Health
Center, said days after the proposed elimination of the centers'
budget, totaling $33 million, were "The cuts put our entire program into
jeopardy.... We provide culturally competent and culturally appropriate
care. Many of these individuals are reluctant to navigate the mainstream
medical system."

The cuts would not apply to the two centers in Oklahoma, where one is
located in Tulsa and the other in Oklahoma City. That's because in
2004 then-Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles authored legislation that changed
the way the clinics are funded. The two centers combined serve an
estimated 25,000 patients a year.

[Okwes]

Urban Indians fight bush budget proposal


Poison Pill
Urban Indians fight bush budget proposal

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<http://un-equaled.com/NTBLOG/?p=646>

[Photo By: Leigh T. Jimmy]

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

ALBUQUERQUE - At first glance, a proposal by President Bush to chop the
Urban Indian Health Program from the U.S. Indian Health Service budget
next year and increase health funding for reservations appears to be a
healthy move.

But a closer look reveals a plan to shove Indians living off-reservation
into America's eroding health arroyo, where poverty-stricken
non-Indians and illegal aliens desperately wait in endless lines for a
scrap of medical care from federal low-income health programs that are
barely alive.

The National Indian Youth Council is shoving back. The council was
founded in Albuquerque in 1967 and is the oldest national Indian
militant group in the United States.

Norman Ration, NIYC executive director, and Keith Franklin, 67, an NIYC
volunteer who also serves as president of the Metropolitan Native
Coalition, have armed themselves with statistics from the Albuquerque
Indian Hospital, the U.S. Census and history.

Ration, who lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation for close to 33
years, most prominently as DNA Legal Services executive director, noted
that half of the country's Indians now live in cities – some by
choice and others with no choice.

The National Indian Health Board, which was established in 1972, used
the same statistics in its Feb. 14 testimony before Congress opposing
elimination of the Urban Indian Health Program's $33 million budget.

The 2000 Census reported that 4.3 million people, or 1.5 percent of the
total U.S. population, identified themselves as American Indian or
Alaskan Native.

Hospital and census stats show that of the 55,000 Native Americans
living in the Albuquerque area, more than 28,000 are Navajos.

Ration said Bush's plan completely ignores the legal responsibility
of the federal government to provide health care for Indians no matter
where they are which is based on federal contracts, or treaties.

"We are sovereign no matter where we go," he said. "When our
fathers and grandfathers signed (treaties), there was nothing in there
about Medicare or Medicaid replacing treaties. But where are our
leaders?"

Ration was referring to the thundering silence of a majority of tribal
leaders, including the National Congress of American Indians, to
Assistant Surgeon General Charles W. Grim's announcement Feb. 28
that Bush planned to gut the Urban Indian Health Program.

The urban program contracts with 34 Indian-controlled nonprofit
organizations nationally, which provide urban Indians with an array of
direct medical and mental services to treat and prevent dental problems,
diabetes, substance abuse, domestic violence, minor cardiac problems,
and other health issues.

Franklin pointed to 2004 statistics from the Albuquerque Indian
Hospital, which showed that of the 562 federally recognized tribes 338
were represented among Albuquerque's 55,000 urban Indians.
"But we're not getting any support from the state or
tribes," Ration said. "They kind of just say, `You guys are
out there. You made the choice, you live with it.'
"And we look from other side, `You, as leaders, promised that if
we left and got an education and training, you would give us job,"
he said. "But there are no jobs on the rez."

His conclusion for why tribal leaders are not speaking out against the
termination of the urban program is that they don't want to endanger
their own federal health dollars.

Bush's proposal to tear down the urban health program while
increasing IHS funding for on-reservation services is a continuation of
the federal government's age-old solution, which is to have the
Indians fight each other over federal funding that has never kept pace
with other federal health programs, Ration said.

Bush is proposing to increase IHS funding by four percent. The agency,
however, has previously said it needs a 40 percent increase – 10
times the amount Bush is proposing – to provide adequate care.

Discussing solutions (sub)

Ration added that President Joe Shirley Jr. has agreed to meet with the
NIYC on March 18 to discuss solutions to Bush's proposal to cut the
program, which received $33 million in fiscal 2006.

Shirley and San Carlos Apache Chairwoman Kathy Kitcheyan are the only
tribal leaders so far to step forward on behalf of Indians living
off-reservation, Ration said.

On Wednesday, Patrick Sandoval, Shirley's chief of staff, confirmed
that Shirley is meeting with NIYC but said he was unsure of the date.

Shirley is scheduled to be a speaker at the Native American Voters
Alliance conference, which is being held in Albuquerque today and
Friday.

Sandoval noted that the Navajo Nation has been told that if federal
funding was restored to the urban health program, it would have to come
from the IHS budget.

He said the discussion between Shirley, Navajo Nation Division of Health
Director Anselm Roanhorse and NIYC would involve options and how urban
Indians fit into the state health care system.

Bush's proposed 2007 budget for IHS is $3.2 billion and another $.8
billion in third party recoveries (such as Medicaid, Medicare and other
third party insurance).

"Closing urban Indian health clinics would have a substantial impact
on the tribes," Kitcheyan said. "The government's assumption
that American Indians and Alaska Natives will seek health care from
community health centers is based on nothing. No study – no facts
– no information.

"You don't know what is going to happen to these people,"
she said. "We think that they will return to their reservations or
communities to seek health care, but there's no funding request for
the tribes to care for them."

Ration sighed long and hard before saying, "When our children leave
the rez (for higher education), they deserve the same care as those on
the rez."

And he said some Native American students get in academic trouble, which
forces them into jobs in the city where eventually they would need
health care.

[blackcrowheart]

Urban Health (fyi)



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More than a doctor’s appointment
Why urban health clinics are so important to Native Americans


Native American Times 3/21/2006

With the proposal to slash funding for 34 Urban Indian Health Care
Centers coming up for a vote in the near future, Alyssa Macy, the
political director for the Minnesota-based Center for Civic
Participation, is circulating a document that details just how important
the centers are. Macy is of Wasco, Hopi and Navajo descent and is a
member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon.

According to Macy, the following are part of the services the health
care centers provide.

-The clinics provide unique and non-duplicable assistance to Urban
Indians who face extraordinary barriers to accessing mainstream health
care. What Urban Indian health programs offer cannot be effectively
replaced by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health
Resources and Service Administration’s Health Centers program.

-Urban Indian health programs save costs and improve medical care by
getting urban Indians to seek medical attention earlier. A delay in
seeking treatment can easily result in a disease or condition reaching
an advanced stage where treatment is more costly and the probability of
survival or correction is lower.

-Urban Indian health programs are better positioned to identify health
issues particular to the Native community. The urban Indian programs are
often able to diagnose more quickly and more accurately the needs of the
Indian patient, as well as more readily point a patient to the
appropriate medical resource to address his or her condition.

-Urban Indian health programs overcome cultural barriers. Urban Indian
programs not only enjoy the confidence of their clients, but also play a
vital role in educating other health care providers in the community to
the unique needs and cultural conditions of the urban Indian population.

-Urban Indian programs reduce costs to other parts of the Indian Health
Service system by reducing their patient load. Many urban Indians, if
they cannot seek medical advice at an urban Indian program, return to
their reservation to access far costlier services.